Eleanor's father Robert would like her to join him in his respectable and successful private practice, but his daughter has plans of her own. These take her from the drawing rooms of the elite to the shocking deprivation of London's East End. Eleanor's determination to become the first female surgeon at the East London Hospital brings her into conflict with Sir Herbert. At home, Eleanor's excitement at the news of her friend's pregnancy quickly turns to concern and the diagnosis threatens to destroy the marriage.

Eleanor Bramwell encounters her first difficult patient at the charitable Thrift Infirmary. A drunken Frank Harrison bursts in demanding morphine to alleviate his hernia problem, but Eleanor tries to convince him that an operation is vital to stop the onset of life threatening gangrene. Eleanor opens an infirmary for the poor, but soon discovers that differentiating between the deserving and undeserving is both difficult and dangerous. Her father arranges for her to treat the famous music hall entertainer, Peggy Heart.

Lady Cora's heavily pregnant laundry maid Clare is rushed into Thrift Infirmary as she panics about an early delivery. Eleanor assures her of a normal birth. Clare tells her the baby's father is away at sea - but then Charlie, a young black man, arrives at the infirmary demanding to see his wife Clare.

A call to the bedside of a sick housekeeper introduces Eleanor Bramwell to the woman's employer, handsome young doctor Frederick Hunter. From the beginning, Eleanor finds herself attracted to the neurologist who is himself intrigued by such a 'revolutionary lady doctor'. His attentiveness brings him to a fundraising party organised by Lady Peters.

In the poverty-stricken East End, tuberculosis is rife as Eleanor Bramwell and Nurse Carr tour the area warning the residents of the health risk.

Lady Peters wants Sir Herbert Hamilton to come to the aid of Thrift. His East London hospital has an X-radiography machine which could help establish the extent of the injuries suffered by Wilf, a 16 year-old navvy buried in a landslide while working on the underground.